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| 27 SEP 2004 at 6:19am |
eGoateeSpace Cadet
Posts : 157
Joined: 4 NOV 2002
Status : Online | I thought there would be replies already but looks like you just posted it. Did you mention the deep disappointment by some over the axing of Live? Wonder if you included the part about small groups that gathered online to witness the closing down of the servers. I stayed 'till the end that night. You probably didn't have enough space to include some of those things. I can understand since the report could have got way too long.
Now there aren't any non violent online adventure games of this nature. Well yes there non shooting adventures online but the graphics and overall presentation are not near that of Uru from what I've seen. And many of them are geared toward kids. I could go on and on and I bet some posters here could too because of the good times in Uru Live and now they are no more. Hope those programming gurus get a server or two up and running by Christmas. I was and still am eTheo in the Uru Ubi forums. Even played Live as eTheo and eTheo2nd.
So we could go online in adventure/role playing games like Everquest but then you have to shoot at rodents and eventually humanoid beings. If I do that then I may as well go on the web in the original Unreal coop.
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| 27 SEP 2004 at 1:22pm |
KsandraSchattenjger
Posts : 2459
Joined: 2 APR 2003
Status : Online | It sounds interesting. Any chance you could post it here?
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| 27 SEP 2004 at 1:29pm |
| Deleted User | Glad I could be of help, Susan.
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| 27 SEP 2004 at 5:27pm |
eGoateeSpace Cadet
Posts : 157
Joined: 4 NOV 2002
Status : Online | BJim since this is about the fall of Uru Live I remember on the Ubi Uru forum you and some posters were saying in effect "I told you so" when Live was pulled offline. And understandably so. My favorite of the replies to you was when one person said "Not now Jim". Not because I agreed with him but because I kinda felt sorry for him because he (or she) knew you were right all along that the online version probably would not work out very well. But I won't dwell on it if this is not the place to bring up Ubi forums again.
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| 27 SEP 2004 at 9:30pm |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Did you mention the deep disappointment by some over the axing of Live? Wonder if you included the part about small groups that gathered online to witness the closing down of the servers. eGoatee - No, I didn't comment about that. Although I do remember it, now that you mention it. As much as I liked the concept of URU Live, I was attempting to show no mercy. :-/
BJ - You're welcome.
Ksandra - Sure. The other comments so far have been about Crystal Pepsi and the XFL. Type "product failures" into a search engine and you'll get those two and many others. I almost wrote about the Spruce Goose, but decided to write about something that you won't find in any search results.
You guys can be my proofreaders.
"URU Live" was supposed to be an online multiplayer adventure game following in the footsteps of the popular computer game "Myst" and its sequels. It would be similar to EverQuest, but instead of being a role-playing game, it would be an adventure game where players could interact and solve puzzles with each other online. "URU" stands for "you are you" and was meant to symbolize the 3rd person character that gamers control. They could change clothing and physicial attributes of the character to make it look like themselves. In the future, new game content would be available online for players to experience. It ended up being a disaster. Users who bought the $50 game software at stores, known as "URU: Ages Beyond Myst," and then tried to access the online part of it, found themselves waiting forever to be connected, if they were connected at all. The servers were buggy and the game would often crash to the desktop. Those that were able to get connected found themselves with no new puzzles. Instead, it was nothing more than a chat room. Part of the problem was that it wasn't quite ready before the software was released, and so all these gamers were trying to get in, and the servers just weren't ready for that kind of traffic. The concept of "URU Live" failed to deliver what it promised and many gamers were unhappy with the results. The software was expensive, too, given the small amount of the game it had on it. There were also going to be monthly fees for the online content, which many gamers were wary of paying, given the technical problems they were experiencing. In the end, "URU Live" was shut down. The extra game content that was supposed to go online was later released in expansion packs, which are still available for purchase in stores today.
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 27 SEP 2004 at 11:10pm |
eGoateeSpace Cadet
Posts : 157
Joined: 4 NOV 2002
Status : Online | I agree with the report, Live for the most part was a flop. It's just that I get easily entertained by chatrooms -and add pretty graphics and I could stay in there all day for the occassion bright moments. Some of us knew it had serious issues and we made fun of the rediculously slow movement in Live with many players roaming around.
Of course it took too long to get online and servers went down too much as Susan's report indicated. I had it lucky compared to others, however, my cable connection allowed me to get online about 20 or 30 times, sometimes for hours at a time. Still way too long to change locations though, and the choppy, frame by frame movement in big levels uh boy.
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| 27 SEP 2004 at 11:28pm |
| Deleted User | Susan: The only thing I'd add is that part of the reason for the failure was because Ubi was basing its schedule and predictions on their experience with producing online games without realizing that the graphics of URU and the design of the Ki interface were going to place demands upon their servers beyond anything they had ever experienced. Overconfidence reared its ugly head. It was akin to saying, "I know I can dig a 10'x20' hole ten feet deep in three days, so I'm sure I can install a deluxe swimming pool of the same size in five days." And then discovering after you've laid the concrete that you first have to invent a brand new type of pool filtration system.
[EDIT: While the failure to add interesting online content was Cyan's fault, the failure of the servers was Ubi's fault. It took failures from BOTH companies to assure URU's stillbirth. If only one company had failed in its tasks, URU Live would have been born... as a sickly, malnourished child that would have gasped its way through a few months before finally succumbing to SIDS. The fact that there were two companies "in charge" of the project whose agendas didn't always necessarily mesh and whose schedules were sometimes at odds with each other was another contributing factor to the complete failure.]
[EDIT #2: Can you tell I've spent a whole lot of time thinking about and analyzing this? [smiley=laughing.gif]]
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| 28 SEP 2004 at 4:54am |
SusanGuild Master
Posts : 5485
Joined: 13 OCT 2002
Location: 0
Status : Offline | Originally Posted By BacardiJim (27 SEP 2004 11:28pm)
Susan: The only thing I'd add is that part of the reason for the failure was because Ubi was basing its schedule and predictions on their experience with producing online games without realizing that the graphics of URU and the design of the Ki interface were going to place demands upon their servers beyond anything they had ever experienced.
Ki?
[EDIT: While the failure to add interesting online content was Cyan's fault, the failure of the servers was Ubi's fault. It took failures from BOTH companies to assure URU's stillbirth. If only one company had failed in its tasks, URU Live would have been born... as a sickly, malnourished child that would have gasped its way through a few months before finally succumbing to SIDS.
Stillbirth? Sickly malnourished child? SIDS? [smiley=raise_eyebrow.gif]
Are you having issues in Real Life at the moment? [smiley=boggled.gif] My goodness!
I miss my Bubba: 1986 - 2006.
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| 28 SEP 2004 at 5:20am |
| Deleted User | My girlfriend is a Labor and Delivery nurse. Those metaphors come to me now out of habit. Sorry.
(And the KI was your communications/camera bracelet.)
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| 28 SEP 2004 at 12:20pm |
KsandraSchattenjger
Posts : 2459
Joined: 2 APR 2003
Status : Online | You could also mention that only a small percentage of Uru purchasers actually signed up for Live (was it 10% or something like that?) Of course we have no proof of this, but part of the reason could be that the previous Myst games were very much solitary pursuits, and not all Myst fans were necessarily interested in a multiplayer game.
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